MOVING TOWARDS CONTINUOUS WATER SUPPLY –
EXPERIENCES FROM KARNATAKA
INTRODUCTION
Government of Karnataka has launched the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Sector reform process through Karnataka Urban Water Sector Improvement Project (“KUWASIP”) and the nodal agency being Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development & Finance Corporation (“KUIDFC”). Under this program a Contract has been awarded to Veolia Eau – Compagnie Generale Des Eaux (CGE), the subsidiary of Veolia Water, the World’s No.1 in Water services, for implementing a 24/7 Water Supply program in the selected Zones of Hubli, Dharwad, Belgaum & Gulbarga. (CGE has already commissioned successfully a similar Project, though smaller in size, for Chennai Metro Water Supply & Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) under a Program titled “Twinning Arrangement Consultancy” funded by The World Bank which is considered to be the first successful 24/7 Pilot Project by any water utility in India).
OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the Demonstration Project are:
a.to better understand the nature, extent and cost of works needed within each ULB to upgrade its water service to continuous, pressurized system operation;
b.to demonstrate to all stakeholders, by concentrating on a small Demonstration Zone within each ULB supply area, that 24-hour, continuous water supply is achievable and to monitor the tangible benefits – health, technical, operational and commercial – to be derived from this type of supply;
c.to establish, within the chosen Demonstration Zone, a customer billing, collection and support service and to provide an improved, continuous (i.e. 24 hours per day, 7 days a week throughout the year) water supply service for a period of 2 years;
d.to monitor the situations within the small zones pre- and post-investment, in order to attempt to quantify the social and economic effects and other benefits resulting from the demonstration projects e.g. reduction in water-related disease; leakage reduction; improved basis for billing usage;
e.to monitor whether the introduction of 24/7 supply to the Demonstration Zones creates any negative effects, damage to the local environment or increased risk to the health of residents, particularly in respect to eventual increases in wastewater volumes.
SITUATION BEFORE INTERVENTION
Absence of accurate information/ data
Oversized / undersized network
Branch / tree water network
Incomplete customer data
Absence of bulk water meters
Absence / Defective customer meters
House Service Connection without control taps
Supply time schedule : 1 hour every 3 to 6 days
Low water pressure in distribution network
Contamination into non-pressurized pipes
Heavy wastage and losses
CONTRACT STRUCTURE
The Contract is structured into three phases.
Preparatory Period ‘A’: This phase is for developing, designing and providing the client a comprehensive rehabilitation plan including costing and a quality assurance program, called “Final Investment Program”.
Preparatory Period ‘B’: This phase is for carrying out the “Final Investment Program” agreed upon during Preparatory Period ‘A’.
O&M Period: is for maintaining the guaranteed performances stipulated in the Contract, thus giving confidence to the client that 24/7 is feasible and sustainable.
Special features of the Contract
1.Contractors remuneration in two parts:
a. Fixed Remuneration – 60% of the total value of the Contract
b. Performance Remuneration – 40% of the total value of the Contract
Performance bonus will be paid only on achieving Performance Targets. Delay in achieving Performance Targets than the stipulated time, results in cancellation of the Contract.
2.A bonus up to 25% of the remuneration if performance is better than the targets specified.
PROCESS & KEY STEPS TOWARDS 24/7
Preparatory Period ‘A’
During the Preparatory Period ‘A’, the following activities were carried out to decide upon the various activities required to commission the rehabilitation program.
Preparatory Period ‘B’
During the Preparatory Period ‘B’, following programs are to be implemented:
1.Preparation of Contract document to select the Sub-contractor to carry out various infrastructure development works.
2.Invite Tenders, select Sub-contractors and provide report to KUIDFC on tendering and award of works.
3.Carry out the infrastructure improvement works as agreed in the “Final Investment Program”.
4.Prepare an Operation & Management (O&M) plan for approval of KUIDFC which is to be implemented during the O&M period.
Performance Targets – PreparatoryPeriod ‘B’
Continuous pressurized water supply
Reduction of water losses (to 20 Lts / connection / day / meter pressure)
Metering of all customers
Development & implementation of Billing & Collection software
Customer database
Round the clock customer service centre
Presently, Veolia Eau - Compagnie Generale Des Eaux (CGE) is commissioning the Project and it is expected that all the five zones will be ready for 24/7 by March 2007.
Operation & Maintenance Period
During this period constituting of 104 weeks, all the Demonstration Zones are to be operated and maintained by CGE and achieve the performance targets stipulated in the Contract.
Performance targets - O&M Period
1.Continuous pressurized water supply to all connected properties and stand-posts, 100% metering of all connections, 100% meter reading and preparation of bill for all connections.
2.Emergency stoppages not to exceed 12 hours and no more than four emergency stoppages in a year.
3.Physical losses to be limited to 20 litres / connections / day / meter pressure.
4.24 Hours Customer Service Centre operation; all customer complaints to be responded within 24 hours and redressal within seven days.
5.Leaks appearing at the surface to be repaired within 24 hours.
Present status
Preparatory Period `A’ and `B’ is over and it is in the O&M Phase.
This Contract is currently serving approximately 200,000 customers. The rich and the poor are equally getting benefited from the Contract. Prior to this intervention, majority of the poor customers were collecting water from the public stand posts or ground water from the near by borehole. Thanks to the pro-poor initiative taken by all the three Municipal Corporations, the one time connection charges has been waived off for the poor customers and it was followed by a reasonable water tariff, there are no public stand posts currently. As a result of this initiative all the customers in slums are currently equipped with individual connections and the potable water reaches the door steps of the poor customers 24 hours and 7 days a week.
The Contract has received a wide spread appreciation from the citizens and the local politicians; the Corporaters. The citizens outside demonstration zones are eagerly waiting for this Contract to be scaled up for the rest of the City. Based on the request from the Citizens and Corporaters the General Body of each of these three Corporations have passed a resolution to scale up this project to the entire City and have requested the Government of Karnataka to come out with a plan to implement the same. Following are some of the statistics which compare the current situation with the one that existed before the intervention:
Sl.No. / Item description / Situationbefore / Situation after intervention
1 / Hours of supply / 2 hours in 3-7 days / 24 x 7
2 / Volume of water supplied to demo zones in Mld / 22.14 / 18.24
3 / Average pressure in distribution system in m / 0-5m; very un-equitable distribution / 17.70m
4 / Number of public fountains / 433 / Zero; all customers are provided with individual connections with meters
5 / Losses as % of input / more than 50% / 7%
6 / Customer service / Not really existed / 24 x 7 customer service center
Customers are willing to accept reasonable increase in tariff. What they require is the sort of service we are providing them at present.
Conclusion
The UFW has been reduced to less than 10% from the earlier levels of more than 50%. The cost of the water saved over a period of time should be able to cover the cost of the refurbishment, thus making such program self-sustainable in the long run. This Success of this Project is going to be a catalytic agent and the beginning of the “Change Management” in the water sector in India and our company is proud to be the first Company to implement such a noble program within such a short period.